Mary

[|gnat|]

Why did God have to make Mary free from original sin, why not just Jesus? If He can intervene and cause an immaculate conception of Mary, why not just do it for Jesus?

[Laudate_Dominum]

I wish I was wise enough, and disciplined enough to write a tome in response to this questions (forget the fact that dUSt would kill me if I posted a tome), but I will offer one (of many) ways of understanding the reason behind the fact of Mary's Immaculate Conception.

True, God could have become incarnate by some other means, God is omnipotent, but the perfection of God's plan is such that He chose to take flesh from His beloved handmaid, whom He preserved from sin. There is no redundancy either; true there is a parallel between Christ's sinlessness and Mary's sinlessness and it might call to mind the question of the necessity of Mary's sinlessness. But Christ's sinlessness is in fact infinitely different than Mary's, because Christ is in fact God. The preservation of Mary from sin was not a necessity for Christ's sinlessness, but rather God preparing a vessel, a temple, and a mother, fit to bear the Son of God Himself (and be the New Eve; the Woman with the Redeemer). Basically, putting the focus on some sort of special intervention which caused Mary's Immaculate Conception, and then suggesting that this was redundant is based on lack of appreciation of the full meaning of the Immaculate Conception, and of the nature of Christ's Incarnation as well as the comprehensive vision of salvation history.

It is difficult for me to answer your question clearly and directly, because there is so much I would like to say... I hope this will suffice for now. If I have more time tomorrow I'll post more (if necessary).

Regards.